Cubic to upgrade Maryland MTA AFC
Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) announced Nov. 22 the award of a $4.8 million contract modification from the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) to upgrade its Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system.
Communications
Railinc wins NCTA award
Railinc Corp. announced it has been named a winner at the 2016 North Carolina Tech Awards in the category of “Industry-Driven Company.”
GE and Transnet innovate in South Africa
GE Transportation and Transnet announced a South Africa partnership on Nov. 15.
Trains, transit—and Uber
The North Carolina Department of Transportation has embarked on a three-month pilot program with technology provider TransLoc to integrate the state’s Amtrak train stations with public transit and Uber through TransLoc’s Rider app.
RailComm iTrack: No more “lost cars”
RailComm’s new, patented iTrack Intelligent Yard Inventory system has been successfully deployed at Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks (TASD).
NJT completes PTC radio spectrum acquisition; sets ops, capex budgets
New Jersey Transit has executed a lease agreement with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the last component of radio spectrum needed for its Positive Train Control (PTC) system, and has set its FY2017 operating and capital budgets.
Herzog constructs changes at the top
Herzog announced on October 19 that after 46 years in the Heavy Civil Construction Industry, Ralph G. Larison – Senior Vice President and National Construction Division Manager has transitioned as of July 1, 2016 to the Board of Directors of Herzog Contracting Corp.
Commentary
“Civil War-era” technology? You’re joking, right?
I’ve heard some pretty disingenuous (that’s a polite word for “dopey”) things said about railroads in my nearly 25 years at Railway Age. Nearly all of them have come from uninformed generalist reporters who are mostly clueless about what we do, how we do it, and the technology we employ—and that they don’t take the time to understand.
Event recorder, camera recovered from NJT Hoboken wreck
The NTSB has recovered the event recorder and Railhead Corp. video recorder from the control cab of the lead car of New Jersey Transit Pascack Valley Line train no. 1614, which crashed Sept. 29 in Hoboken Terminal. Data from both devices will be analyzed at the NTSB’s laboratory in Washington D.C.
Commentary
While we’re waiting, Administrator Feinberg
While we’re waiting for the NTSB to analyze the event recorder data and forward-facing camera video on the NJ Transit cab car involved in the Sept. 29 Hoboken Terminal crash, assuming there is useable information (there is no data from the locomotive event recorder, because it was non-operational), let’s jump ahead a year or two and anticipate the conclusion of the NTSB’s investigation and the list of forthcoming recommendations.